The Kingdom To Kill For

Chapter 4 - Planted Danger

In the next few days, the incident happened and was almost quickly forgotten. And the students all move on with more important matters.

"What do you think happens with our classmate back then?" Persis asked Sekhmet for her opinion about the guy who transformed into a dragon. They were walking along with their classmates heading to another class.

"I have no idea, Persis," Sekhmet said, eyes on the stony path, "maybe they studied him, experiment them,"

"You sound like it's okay to you what happened to him," her eyes slit in distrust towards Sekhmet, but in a teasing manner.

"And what are you going to do, then, if they were experimenting with him?"

Persis sighed, crossed her arms, "They must call his parents about this,"

"I believe they did,"

“What about the blue longhorn?” 

Sekhmet suddenly paused by the question. Turn her sideway to Persis with a bothered look in her eyes. “What about it?”

“I was just curious about what kind of dragon is the blue longhorn? And where it came from?”

“You’ve never read the book about them, huh?”

“Obviously,” she gave a slight shrug with a playful smirk. Her curiosity and her determination to know something is not on the same page, and somehow rely on asking someone like Sekhmet. She knows and witnessed that Sekhmet reads a lot.

“The Blue Longhorn originated in the Eastern Kingdoms, one of the rarest dragons and the Niflheim received a gift from the Eastern to raise and breed to these kinds. Now, this kingdom has only one type of dragon who breathes fire. But their emperor never minds about it, at least he has the highly prized item in the Blue Longhorns.”

“You mean the golden horn?”

“Yes, these golden horns, when powdered served as a powerful potion ingredient.”

Persis crossed her arms, eyes looking up, wondering about the creature, “Yeah, someone told me about that powdered horn, but, I don’t remember seeing the golden horn on the dragon’s head,”

“And that is one secret the Blue Longhorn has. They can hide away their golden horns like you can hide your wings and no one else can see unless you spread them out of your back,” And of course, in Sekhmet’s mind, she can’t make herself tell Persis about that horn. 

Two gatekeepers motions and open the large oak double doors. They lead the class inside the greenhouse. Every student was amazed by what they came here for.

The greenhouse was architectured that the students can only dream. The ceiling is domed higher than any cathedral and made of the most beautiful glass.

An overrun garden of grass, trimmed short between rectangular beds, is bordered by a sundry or hedges, flower bushes, and shrubs. Aromatic leaves, the air scented by blossoms, tiny colorful leaves of different unfamiliar herbs, sprawling with its sweet-pungent smell, others in its clay pots reaching for the sun.

"I never thought this is bigger than our palace's garden," said the girl beside Persis. She was awed by the garden inside the dome, and she turned to Persis. "You are the princess of the Wind Kingdom, right?" Her name is Hayley. Brown, curly hair reveals a chiseled friendly face.

Persis looked at her with a faint smile, "Of course, what about it?" she asked.

The looks of her face are telling that-everyone-in-the-class-knows-about-her-being-the-princess of that kingdom, 

why ask now?

"Well, I was curious about it if you ever have a plant in the clouds?"

The question seems to give Persis a hard time to swallow and think about what to answer. But it felt more stupid the longer she thinks about giving away an answer which is she obviously knows.

Persis' eyebrow raised a bit, "Let me think, 'cause it's so hard to think about that right now, why don't you ask Sekhmet about planting flowers in Mispelheim?" she mocked.

"Right, and why not?" she cupped her hands in a clap and was about to ask Sekhmet, but she was nowhere to be found. Maybe she did hear what they were talking about and walked away without saying anything. Persis got the chance to slip away and disappear before she turned around, finding herself that no one was around with her.

Various stepping stones mark and offer a glimpse of the best spots. A fountain stands at the center of the garden, spouting water in the air and offering birds and insects a place to drink.

Their class president called out to them to gather in one spot.

"Botany Class, huh?" said the guy named Gaian to his class president, Kaine, "what's to study about plants, anyway? It's not that I learn and plant on the clouds, right?"

"Yeah, right," said the other guy in the group, "and not even ashes and coal can grow with that kind of lava land,"

There was a chorus of giggling and grunts from the other students. The class president shifted his eyeglasses and remained silent. He seems to know where and what kingdoms they came from or maybe they just plain stupid.

"May I remind you that learning in my class isn't just about planting seeds and waiting 'till it grows, and this is not all about farming,' ' Ginger short hair neatly coiffed to reveal a full, tense face. Clear ebony eyes, set deep within their sockets who watch thoughtfully over his class.

They tensed at his abrupt appearance before the students, as others shied away to avoid his stern stare.

"I believe this is your first class to me," he announced, "I am Elmon Alduir, a botanist also an alchemist which I study everything about plants that are related to magics and transmute the elements into weapons and antidotes. Any questions before we proceed?"

A girl at the back in her ponytail seems hesitant to raise her hand, but she did it so. "Excuse me, Sir Alduir, may I ask what is that thing behind you?" she pointed her finger towards the professor's back. Everyone turned to see what it was.

“Ah, too curious about this hidden treasure, I say,”

The professor grabs the grey sheet and lets it fall to the ground revealing a large glass bell jar with a strange, unfamiliar flower inside.

"This is Anemone du Fantome," he introduced, "or called the Phantom Anemone,"

The plant is a rosette of nine leaves, which arises from a long stem that is a bulb-like object bearing a group of small white flowers at the tip. The flowers are dark red and bronze. It has large and long wedge-shaped leaves, which are usually blue-green and have blades that hinged along the midline.

"This flower lives only on the darkest side of Kulshodar that only blooms in late autumn, and grows separated by a fair distance from each other. Their defense mechanism grows small thorns, producing a thick, sticky wax. And they are sensitive. When anything alive stands nearby or touches these plants, they snap out their small thorns into long ones enough to grab you. And devour you."

The students are shivered by the information they gather about the flower. It looks beautiful but deadly.

Another student raised her hand and said, "How do these plants reproduce?" she asked.

The professor put his hand behind him, pacing towards the glass, "They rely on cloning themselves by growing a new specimen to reproduce. They do not need sunlight, and sunlight doesn't hurt them, either."

Another student asked, "What about air?"

"There's magic inside the glass jar, creating an invisible atmosphere that only belongs in the Kulshodar."

"What happens if it is not from Kulshodar, Sir?" the class president said.

"Then, they go rampage. Let's move to the other plants,"

Without further questions, they start to move away from the glass jar and follow their professor towards other plants.

The air is suddenly rent by the sound of breaking glass. It's Sekhmet that first gets her attention sooner that she hears a c***k. Her heart is accelerating faster.

Before the distress calls can even depress, it accelerates, branching like a drunk spider's web before imploding. Thousands of glasses shattered in unison. The breaking glass appears to fall with the grace of snow, yet in truth, it is more of a wild avalanche and just as deadly.

Sekhmet shut her eyes, and a million new knives fell softly over her uniform and other small parts of exposed skin. She froze, all but her heart remaining statue-like on the wet tile. When finally she allows her eyelids to flutter open, she sees that the ground is stained red, the color creeping outward among the shards.

"Stay away!" it was their professor who happened to move quickly, stopping with his palms, raising towards the growing stems of the plant. It went wild and started whipping their long stem, but his power of telekinesis buys time to stop its full rampage and to let the students go. He wasn’t sure until how long he’s going to hold on to it.

The growling sound of the plant can be heard right out the dome; the screaming of the students had alarmed the guards.

The plant's stems grew longer like large vines, and the professor was trying all his might to stop the plant from growing, but it's overwhelming strength was hard to hold on. It was breaking him until he started to bleed from his nose and ears.

One of the stems breaks through, moves in a violent and jerky way. The professor lashed out, tossed him high, and crashed his back on the fountain.

Some students had gathered their courage to fight back with their powers only to give more rage to the growing plant, one by one, its stems grew longer and snatched the students in a swift move.

Wrapped around the slimy vine, Persis was struggling to break through, and in every single move she made, the vine only tightening its grips to her, and even using her powers, it was useless, and it was draining her gradually.

In the blink of her eye, a long blue flickering light sword was cutting through the vine, releasing her from the plant's grasp.

The world seemed to spin around her as she stumbled on her feet. She gasped for air. Half of her body felt numb while the other half screamed in agony. The sharp, burning sensation was all she could focus on, mind raced, half panicked, and half determined.

Sekhmet was quick to pry the vines from attacking her and whipped around to clash with it. She comes with blows with her blade back and forth. Her blue fire sword gleamed in the cool blue light, and it stained the sword with the black blood of the plant.

"Persis, are you okay?"

"The professor didn’t say anything about the vines! But, I'm fine," Persis greeted her teeth, as she tried to block out all the pain to press onward. But unable to cope with it.

"You don't look okay," Sekhmet said, putting Persis' arm around her neck.

The plant put out a low growling moan that chilled their blood.

They both turned around to see what's happening, as their eyes were wide open to witness a more horrible scene.

A new growing stem coming out of the wound. Its stems were like a tree trunk. It had sent its tendrils into the garden and pushed out the shattered glass, spreading runners over the concrete, other beds of flowers and plants, destroying everything that came into its way.

It was too late for the guards to come to their way and snatched Sekhmet away from Persis.

"Sekhmet! No!" Her wings spread out, the pain flared once more, and every muscle in her body tensed up. She can't let this monster plant take away her friend.

A long and large stem came in a swift move and whipped her out before she could even fly. She crashed her back on one of the coming guards. Both stumbled on the ground.

The larger leaf of the Phantom plant opens wide, and on it are long, stiff red hairs, shivering excitedly by the presence of its victim. Persis stuttered and felt motionless by watching her friend get devoured by the monster plant and shut its mouth in a loud thud.

Persis was shaking. Her eyes and her mouth were frozen wide open in an expression of stunned surprise. Impossible. But she saw that.

A beautiful icy figure appeared out of thin air. The plant swiveled in the man's direction, thrusting its long stems and tendrils forward, only to meet by Ryujin's slender, curved, single-edged blade.

Persis didn't see what happened, but moments later, the monster plant roared in pain and tore into pieces. Its chunked body fell on the ground with black sticky liquid oozing out from it. It was a quick, clean move. Everything happened at a speed of light. 

Ryujin looked down at Sekhmet on his arms, unconscious. She was still breathing. Thank God. And he sighed in relief. He should have been here earlier and almost let her die inside the monster. He didn't wait for anyone to come for the rescue, and he just dashed in. Thankful enough that he came on time.

Guards and medics came hurries for emergency responses to the damaged area, tending the injured and the other students who made it out alive. The professor, until now, had a lot of damage and was taken to the hospital immediately. Persis, on the other hand, laying on the wheeled stretcher and was accompanied by the other medics. She wanted to come over to Sekhmet, but she saw that Sekhmet was taken away for further medications to her injuries with Ryujin.